Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Tuesday that it is authorizing banks to issue dollar-denominated sukuk, its first dollar bond sale since September.
Treasury authorized Citi, Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC and Kuwait Finance House Capital for issuance of dollar-denominated sukuk with a maturity of 5 years.
Bloomberg, previously citing sources familiar with the issue, reported that the issuance of the sukuk – Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance – could be used to finance approximately $2 billion of debt, which will expire this month.
According to Refinitiv data, Turkey is due to pay off a $2 billion eurobond on Feb. 21 and a $1.1 billion domestic bond on Feb. 25.
According to ministry’s financing program, it was foreseen to provide $11 billion of financing through bond issuances from international capital markets in 2022.
In 2021, the Treasury provided $10 billion from international markets.
Turkey lastly in September turned to foreign investors with a bond sale in September before a policy of cutting interest rates.
Amid its pursuance of a rate cutting policy, Turkey’s lira last year lost more than 40%, while the nation’s dollar debt handed investors a 5% loss in 2021, according to the Bloomberg indexes.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has lowered its key policy rate by 500 basis points since September 2021.
